Magazine holder for the feeding of fire arms, machine guns, cannons and the like



2,951,423 MACHINE Sept. 6, 1960 s. FIORINI MAGAZINE HOLDER FOR THE FEEDING OF FIRE ARMS,

GUNS, GANNONS AND THE LIKE 5 Sheeis-Sheet 1 Filed May 16, 1958 jnvaniar. A es tilia F20 Sept. 6, 1960 s. FIORINI 2,951,423

MAGAZINE HOLDER FOR THE FEEDING OF FIRE ARMS, MACHINE GUNS, CANNONS AND THE LIKE I Filed May 16, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 1m Y 17 13 14 11 14 11 v I l I [i W 1. 1

jnvenl'en Sept. 6, 1960 v s. FIORlNI MAGAZINE HOLDER FOR THE FEEDING OF FIRE ARMS, MACHINE GUNS, CANNONS AND THE LIKE 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed May 16, 1958 United States MAGAZINE HOLDER FOR THE FEEDING OF FIRE fiKLI IIS, MACHINE GUNS, CANNONS AND THE Sestilio Fiorini, Brescia, Italy, assignor to Breda Meccanica Bresciaua S.p.A., Brescia, Italy, an Italian com- P y It is known that conventional systems for feeding projectiles to fire arms, specially automatic weapons, have a capacity limited by the weight and maneuverability of the feeding means and the projectiles carried thereby.

; One of the most practical and widely used systems is the magazine or magazine clip system.

As the caliber of the gun increases, the capacity of the magazine or magazine clip decreases and may be limited to only a few rounds of ammunition since it should not surpass a weight of about to 12 kg, which is considered to be a limit for the loader from the point of view of handling.

It is an object of the present invention to keep the advantages of the magazine or magazine clip systems while providing magazines or magazine clips which can be fed to the weapon automatically one after another and, therefore, afford the possibility of shooting bursts or volleys which are longer than has heretofore been possible.

This result is important particularly in anti-aircraft firing against very fast targets because even with highly trained loaders it is not always possible to keep continuity of firing, not even for a few seconds, owing to the high rate of fire of modern anti-aircraft guns.

The invention comprises an ammunition feeder mounted on top of the weapon and provided with a chain conveyor, with brackets and elastic retaining means, on which the magazine clips are placed to be conveyed to the loading aperture of the weapon.

During the feeding of the magazine clips by suitable means, the chain is made to slide in a direction contrary to the feeding movement.

The chain meshes by means of toothed wheels with a drum that has spiral springs inside it which are wound up or loaded during feeding and which unwind or unload to drive automatically the chain to feed the gun.

By suitable-guides the magazine clips are conveyed towards the loading aperture or breech of the gun; at the right time said guides incline by an angle a outwards to diverge in such a way that each magazine clip becomes released from the supporting brackets and engages with the gun.

In the accompanying drawings there is represented one of the possible embodiments of the invention, namely: in Fig. 1, a magazine clip such as may be used in the ammunition feeder of the present invention and holding four cartridges; in Fig. 2, a cross-section of the brackets for holding the magazine clips on the chain conveyor; in Fig. 3, a side view of a bracket of the conveyor and showing a magazine clip held thereby; in Fig. 4, a plan view of a pair of brackets of the conveyor and showing a magazine clip held thereby; in Fig. 5, a longitudinal section along the axis of the spring drum that controls the conveyor; in Fig. 6, a cross section of the spring drum and showing a portion of the chain driven thereby; in Fig. 7, a side view of the ammunition feeder mounted on the weapon; in Fig. 8, a plan view showing the ammunition atom feeder mounted on the gun; in Fig. 9, a side view of the ammunition feeder and gun with the ammunition feeder in feeding position and showing the loader or gunners mate loading a magazine clip into the feeder; in-Fig. 10, a hand control crank for the feeder; and in Fig. 11, a side view of the ammunition feeder and gun with the ammunition feeder in cleared position permitting the normal load-ing and unloading of the weapon by the loader or gunners mate.

The magazine holder comprises a framing 1 whereon there are mounted two parallel chains 2 which mesh in front with sprocket wheels that are integral with or are secured to a drum 3 driven by spiral springs 4 (Figs. 5 and 6) and at their rear ends with two axially-aligned sprocket wheels 5 and 6 (Fig. 9).

The inner ends of the spiral springs 4 are anchored on a shaft 7 which .is rigid with a ratchet wheel 8 (Fig. 5)

with which there engages pawl 9 which is pivotally mounted on the frame 1.

The upper section of the chain 2 is supported by idlers 10 (Fig. 6)- or by a simple supporting guide on which the pins of the. chain ride.

To the chain 2 there are pivoted in equi-spaced relation, one in front of the other, brackets 11 which are provided with elastic retaining fins 12 (Figs. 2 and 4).

Said brackets 11 serve to support and sustain the magazine clips which in this case are provided with four cartridges 13 (Figs. 1, 3 and 4) held together by two stirrups 14 and 15 engaged in the bottoms of the cartridge or shell cases.

The brackets 11 have at their rear ends pins that carry rollers 16 (Fig. 3) which run in the guides 17 and 18' mounted inside the framing 1. A hinged bracket 19 (Figs. 7, 9 and 11) pivoted on the frame 1 serves to support and guide the magazine clips during supply of the magazine clips to the ammunition carrier or feeder. A chain 20 (Figs. 7 and 11), which meshes in front with a sprocket wheel 21 (Fig. 5) rigid with the drum 3 and at the rear side with a sprocket wheel 22 (Fig. 10) driven by a tiltable crank 23, serves to move by hand the chains 2 whereon there are mounted the clip-carrying brackets 1 t The frame 1 has at the bottom two guide ribs 24 (Fig. 11) which slide in a support 25 fixed to the weapon.

The sliding of the holder or feeder on the guides of the support 25 is controlled directly by hand or by a crank 26 rigid with a shaft mounted on the support 25 and whereon there is fitted a gear 27 which meshes with a rack 28 fixed to the framing 1.

The plates which form the sides of the framing 1 diverge outwards at their rear portion, that is, towards the loading aperture of the gun, as shown in Fig. 8, so that the two brackets 11 no longer retain the magazine clip when each clip reaches its rear position and the clip enters the loading aperture to feed the weapon, by gravity as well as under the thrust of the subsequent magazine. I

The holder or feeder operates as follows:

The weapon is put to inclined position in such a way that the bracket 19 can be swung to a position convenient for the loader (Fig. 9).

A loader (gunners mate) operates the crank 23 so as to make a reference point thereon coincide with the arrow 29 marked on the framing 1.

In this position a pair of brackets 11 is in registry with the magazine clip placed on the loading bracket 19 and the loader can push the magazine clip until it engages the elastic fins 12 of these brackets 11.

Thereafter by operating the crank 23 the chains 2 are reversed by one step whereby the spring 4 of the drum 3 is loaded or wound.

The. operation is repeatedauntil the holder or feeder is filled with magazine clips. On completion of the filling of the holder or feeder, the loading bracket 19 is swung to idle position; the toothed coupling 30 (Fig. is disengaged and the handle 23 is tilted to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 10, rendering the, control chain 20 idle (loose). The magazine clips are then fed to the gun-aperture by the spring 4, which rotates the drum 3 which actuates the chains 2 by making them, move in the. direction of the loading aperture of the weapon.

. When the loading aperture of the weapon is filled, the chain-conveyor stops.

While the weapon shoots and when the aperture is emptied, the magazine clips resume their movement through operation of the spring 4 and feed the weapon continuously until exhaustion of the holder or feeder.

I claim:

1. A feeder for a gun comprising a frame, a pair of endless conveyors mounted on said frame to travel in parallelism to one another, a plurality of bracket membersv secured to each of said conveyors, said bracket members being arranged in pairs, one member of each pair being secured to one conveyor and the other member of the pair to the other conveyor, each of said. bracketmemhers. having a spring-pressed retaining member mounted to pivot relative thereto, the two retaining members of each pair of bracket members being constantly urged by their springs to retaining position to secure a cartridge clip to the respective pair of bracket members, a pair of spaced guides mounted on said frame and extending longitudinally of the conveyors, means for driving the conveyors together in one direction to deliver cartridge clips to the loading aperture of the gun, a roller connected to each retaining member and engaging one of said guides, said guides being shaped to. diverge in the proximity of 4 c said loading aperture to cause said rollers to open up each pair of retaining members as they approach the loading aperture thereby to release the cartridge clip held between the bracket members.

2. The combination with a gun having a barrel and a loading aperture, of a feeding attachment for feeding cartridges to said loading aperture, said attachment comprisinga support attached to said barrel, a frame mounted on said support above said barrel and slidable on said support axially of said barrel into and out of operative relation with said loading aperture, an endless conveyor movably mounted on said :frame to travel longitudinally of the gun barrel, a plurality of brackets secured to said conveyor and spacedfrom one another in the direction of travel of said conveyor, means on each bracket for holding a, cartridge clip to suspend the cartridges by their bases only, each clip holding a plurality of cartridges by their bases only, a coil spring operatively connected to said conveyor to drive said conveyor in one direction to feed the cartridge clips successively to said loading aperture and constantly urging said conveyor in said one direc-. tion, and manually-operable means for moving said conveyor step-by-step in the opposite direction to permit loading cartridge clips onto thebrackets of said eonveyo-r and to simultaneously wind said spring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

